You Mean My Day Just Got Worse?
by Lady Lemons
Summary: Team Sheppard goes to a planet to seek out some ruins but it's a trap set by a dead man. Then the wraith show up! Much fun for all. This three parter is now DONE mwahahaha! Completely DoNe!
1. Chapter 1

You Mean My Day Just Got Worse?

_Author's Note: This is set after Vengeance, but before First Strike. This is a two parter in which part two will be up tomorrow. It's just this idea I had to write. I know I have other unfinished stuff, but this was written in one go and fully completed before posting._

Part One:

Intel: it could make or break a mission. Good intelligence could be the means to a successful mission, whereas bad intelligence could be a team's downfall. The key, however, to laying a perfect trap was to have the intelligence given to ones enemies appear to be 'good intel', but for you it was 'better intel.' One had to have control of the situation to execute a trap well. Once that control was taken away, however, all bets were off in regards to the success of a mission.

However, there was also skill needed to pull off a successful mission. Plenty of missions had backfired due to the inexperience of those underneath oneself. Those under one's command needed to be trained and well adjusted to the ways of fighting.

The last and most crucial piece of knowledge needed to succeed in a revenge plot was to never underestimate one's enemies. That was critical, because once you turned your back on a fallen enemy; it was your fault if you ended up with a knife in your back.

Well, he liked to think he had learned from his past mistakes. He had certainly paid for them enough. Now, with the intelligence planted and the trap sprung, all this cat had to do was bide his time and wait for his mouse to show up. Then, victory would finally be his. Death would not stop him; it could not stop him as he had already conquered death. Death would only come to his enemy now.

Atlantis: 

Allies were imperative to have when one was in a galaxy up against two formidable enemies. Well, three if they took into account Michael and his super bug army. Allies that were friends, however, were even better to have. The Athosians were the first allies of the Atlantis expedition, and had proved to be some of the best friends they could hope for. With their extensive knowledge and many contacts on other worlds, their assistance had proven to be invaluable.

Recently an Athosian contact had notified them of a world with ruins on them. Now the Pegasus galaxy was filled with planets that contained ruins of the ancients, but apparently these supposedly were extra special. The planet allegedly housed an old rundown ancient outpost that was once rumored to hold a defense system that had protected the planet for many years. Or at least this was the legend that had been passed down for many years in the settlement that was on the planet.

Well, the idea of a defense system always sounded good to those on Atlantis, so Dr. Weir had sent her best qualified team to investigate. Little did they know as they dialed the gate to the planet, that they were playing right into the hands of a formidable and hated enemy.

Ruinous Planet (MX9-532)

Them team exited the gate onto a beautiful planet. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, there were farmers working in the field that the gate sat on the edge of. Actually, the planet looked like a lot of the other planets in the galaxy. The field that the gate sat in was surrounded by trees and had a road cutting into the forest that Teyla informed them, led to the village. There was also a secondary path that branched off that also led into the woods in the opposite direction. They needed to follow this path, Teyla's contact had informed them, if they wanted to get to the ruins. He had also said that the there was no need to stop by the village as many people visited their world on religious journeys to the ruins, so they would not offend anyone by skipping a trip to the village. So as the team headed down the smaller path to the ruins, two of the farmers in the field moved closer to converse.

"That was them wasn't it?" asked the first.

"_Yes, they fit the description. One really big guy with dreadlocks that needs to be carefully watched, a dark woman with skill surpassing her beauty, an annoying loudmouth man who is much smarter than he looks, and their leader who has messy hair and a smart mouth," added the second._

"Oh, well from this far away, I thought that they matched the pictures," replied the first.

The second who was older and getting frustrated with his younger associate, "_Just go inform the boss already."_

"Right," replied the first.

Ancient Ruins:

The walk to the ruins had been uneventful and fairly quiet since they were only about half a mile from the gate. McKay had hardly had a chance to complain about the walk and all of the gear that he carried. He had improved a great deal since joining the team though, and carried much less equipment than he once had. Since bad things happened to befall the team unexpectedly, he had cut down his supplies to the bare minimum. It still didn't stop him from complaining on a long walk though.

They had arrived at the ruins to find them in terrible disrepair. Ten thousand years had not been kind to this place. There were only a handful of partial walls that outlined some rooms. The rooms contained some parts of consoles that had once been used by the ancients for something. The entire structure was open to the elements though, as the roof had long since been destroyed. The team looked at little disappointed at the state the place was in, but McKay quickly pulled out his scanner and determined in no time that the place was giving off a faint energy signature. Therefore, the trip would still go on. Everyone got comfy as Rodney buckled down to see what he could figure out about the place.

Village: Building situated on the outskirts of a thriving marketplace town.

The young man named Renn, who was working in the field when the team came through the gate, entered the building. It was old and not terribly large, but it was the place that housed the entire operations of his boss. Really this was just a training center and was the place his boss laid low at, to attract as little attention as possible, and made his plans. His men lived throughout the marketplace village and led double lives protecting their cover as merchants, farmers, and workers. Only a few of the most loyal, those who had survived the escape from the Boss's homeworld and witnessed his transformation, were permitted to live on the premises.

Renn walked through the complex to the office of the ranking soldier on duty, Mairs, and informed him of the team's arrival to the planet. Mairs dismissed him with the orders that he was to return to the field and keep watch by the gate, but report anything out of the ordinary by radio next time. As the soldier watched the young man exit his office, he could hardly contain his excitement. The Boss would be very pleased with the news. Mairs got up from behind his desk and walked over to the bookcase in his office. He pulled the particular book that initiated the opening of a passage that contained a set of spiral stairs. He followed the stairs to the bottom.

The room was dark and contained only a few candles, and one skylight up to the daylight above. Mairs could just see the faint outline of his boss sitting down in meditation.

"_What is it now? You know I do not like to be disturbed while meditating."_

Mairs did indeed know this, but he answered respectfully, "Yes sir, but I have just received word that a certain team of Atlanteans has come through the gate not an hour ago and headed off in search of some ruins."

"_Really?"_ questioned the man sitting in the shadows.

Mairs swallowed and replied, "_He_ is here sir."

The man stood up and walked over past his second in command, the light revealing two bullet scars in his right shoulder, and pulled on his jacket. _"Ready the men, we have a plan to execute."_

Mairs saluted and strode purposely out of the room leaving his boss alone with his thoughts. _Sheppard was here. Well, there would be no mistakes this time. _He thought to himself, _no intense rage would not get in the way this time. He would master his emotions and do the job properly. That was the only way to ensure success._

Ancient Ruins:

Two hours. That was the length of time since they had arrived at the ruins. The only person who was remotely interested in the place still was Rodney. He had long since dispelled to mystery of the ancient weapon that had once existed. It had protected the planet for a number of years, but had been destroyed in the original war with the wraith. So now McKay was just trying to recover the ancient's notes on the weapon in hopes that maybe they could recreate it for themselves on Atlantis. Ronon and Teyla had opted to go look around at the surrounding area leaving a very unhappy Sheppard to keep an eye on McKay. The Colonel had to be the one to stay as his gene was the strongest and the surviving technology didn't seem to want to work for Rodney's artificial gene.

"Rodney, are you almost done yet?" asked John impatiently. He was really starting to get sick of the planet.

"No, Colonel. But I need you and your magic gene to activate this console over here!" Snapped Rodney not even looking up from the console in which he was working at, but pointing at the one right next to his.

Sighing the pilot walked over to the console that Rodney wanted him to activate, he was about to touch it when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something did not feel right; unfortunately his gut usually was right, so he turned to around to peer out over the walls of the ruins looking for anything strange. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" he asked.

Rodney noted the change from playful banter to the serious military mode and looked up as he replied, "Yes this is completely safe. Why is your spidey sense letting you in on something you'd like to share?" He just couldn't resist throwing in that little jab.

Sheppard still look distracted as he took in their surroundings, "I guess I just have a feeling okay? Which panel did you want to me activate?" He asked turning his attention back to the console.

"That one," replied McKay with some slight sarcasm as he rolled his eyes and pointed to the correct one.

Sheppard accordingly touched the correct panel, but could not shake the uneasy feeling that all was not as it seemed. Murphy's Law was a funny thing, and it always seemed to apply to his team.

Forest a ways away from the ruins:

"I feel like we are being pursued," said Teyla quietly as the walked stealthily through the forest.

"Yeah I got that feeling too," answered Ronon with a grunt. He stopped and slowly turned around. A split second later he whipped out his gun and shot it into the bush facing him. He was rewarded with a grunt; however five heads popped up out of the shrubbery and rushed them. Less than five minutes later Ronon had managed to shoot three more, and Teyla had taken out the other too.

"Colonel Sheppard," said Teyla into her comm.

"_Yeah," _came the response, although somewhat distracted sounding.

"We have just taken out a team of men who tried to kill us," answered Teyla.

That seemed to catch the pilot's attention, "_WHAT?"_

This time it was Ronon who responded, "The men are.."

"_Genii," _said the Colonel coolly finishing his sentence for him. Both Ronon and Teyla heard the sound of guns being drawn over the comm.

"Colonel?" questioned Teyla.

"_Hi Kolya," _was the last thing she heard Sheppard say over the comm.

Ancient Ruins:

They were surrounded by ten Genii soldiers and their pesky boss, Commander Acustus Kolya. All he their weapons trained on the two Atlanteans, well mostly on Colonel Sheppard. Rodney was still sitting on the ground with his data pad in his hands and the guts of the console littered on his lap and around him. John had drawn his gun and had aimed it at Kolya's head.

"Lower your weapon Colonel, you are obviously surrounded and really would only get off a shot before my men retaliated," taunted Kolya.

Sheppard narrowed his gaze at Kolya's direction and replied unfazed, "How much lower would you like it? Your head isn't good enough for you? How about your heart? Or your…"

"Enough, if you do not drop your weapon I will be forced to shoot Dr. McKay, and we will carry on this discussion without him," replied Kolya with dead seriousness.

"Whoa hey, is this really necessary," asked McKay nervously looking from Sheppard to Kolya and back to Sheppard. This was bad, very bad. They were surrounded by armed Genii and a particularly evil looking Kolya. Rodney watched as the Colonel lowered his weapon and one of Kolya's lackey's remove it from his grasp, as well as his radio. Why Kolya hadn't shot Sheppard yet was an intriguing question, but the biggest one of all was asked by the Colonel a second later.

"I seem to remember you dying at our last little encounter," drawled Sheppard as two Genii forced him to his knees and pressed their guns to his head.

Rodney had to hand it to him, the man never lost his cool in situations like these, but sooner or later his smartass remarks were going to get him seriously hurt or killed. He sincerely hoped that Ronon and Teyla were on their way to get back up or at least help them, because with Kolya, every second mattered.

Sheppard's comment seemed to get a rise out of the genii commander as a replied bitterly, "Yes, but death is not the only way to cause suffering. Death can be conquered if you know the right people."

Kolya walked over and squatted down to look Sheppard in the eye, "There are more ways to conquer an enemy than just death."

"Oh good so I can rule out death on today's to do list then," replied the Colonel sarcastically.

McKay watched as his friend's comment earned him a kick to the gut. Sheppard didn't make a sound, but pushed himself up and glared at Kolya. Rodney was really starting to worry about Kolya's intentions and why the man was alive because Sheppard had killed him on their last encounter. He, Rodney, had watched as a unit of Ladon's men had come through the gate and escorted the body and Kolya's remaining men to the Genii homeworld to be dealt with. What had gone wrong?

Unfortunately a bad situation had just gotten worse. Kolya's radio had activated and one was his men was reporting "_The gate activated, four wraith darts have just come through. Wraith are beaming down. Twenty….. _gun fire_……. ahhhhhh."_ They listened as the man screamed and the radio contact stopped.

Soon they heard the all too familiar whine of the darts overhead. One dart and a bunch of wraith were heading right for the ruins. Kolya was livid, the wraith showing up were not part of his plan. He ordered all of his men to go remove the wraith except the two holding Sheppard at gunpoint and the one guarding Rodney.

Ronon and Teyla had silently been making their way back to the ruins. They had heard Sheppard's greeting to Kolya before the radio transmission had been cut off. No doubt Kolya had taken away their radios. They maneuvered themselves so that they were in a position just by the back entrance to the ruins, but were still under the cover of the trees so that they would remain undetected. Since the walls were only waist high, they were able to see everything that was going on, only the conversation was hard to hear because of the distance.

Teyla and Ronon had come up with a plan while watching the scene unfold, and the wraith had provided the distraction that they needed. The genii played further into their hands when over half of them left to attempt to take care of the wraith problem. Ronon moved away so that he was facing Sheppard and waited until his captors fully had their attention on making sure he didn't try to escape, that they were not looking at the forest anymore.

That was when Ronon made his move. He stood up so that the Colonel saw him as he aimed at the Genii guards. Two seconds later the pilot dove at Kolya getting out of Ronon's way allowing him to shoot the guards. Teyla on the other hand took to opportunity to take out McKay's guard. That left Kolya. Unfortunately when Sheppard dove at him the momentum had knocked him off and Kolya had taken the split second to grab hold of McKay, who was very confused, and put a gun to his head.

Sheppard used his moment to pick up one of the discarded guns, but as he turned to aim at Kolya, he met the sight before him. McKay was not looking very happy, and Kolya was pissed. Ronon ran up to stand beside Sheppard and said, "The wraith are here."

Not even looking at Ronon and keeping his gun trained on Kolya the entire time, the colonel replied, "I'll finish this, you and Teyla make sure we have a path to the gate. We'll be there in a minute."

Ronon noted the seriousness and accepted that this was Sheppard's battle to finish, so he ran off to help Teyla who was attempting to hold her position at the entrance to the ruins as the wraith fought to enter.

However, the standstill was brought to an untimely end as the wraith dart chose that moment to show up. Unwittingly Kolya had walked right into the dart culling beam as he forced McKay to slowly back up. With a growl from Sheppard, the colonel dove in after them.

Unfortunately Teyla saw the whole thing pan out as she fought with the wraith that had neared their position. Ronon did too, and in a fit of anger took out his two wraith and the one Teyla had been fighting. They ran as fast as possible chasing after the dart. They quickly exited the wooded path into the field firing at the darts. They watched as two entered to open Stargate, but managed to bring the last one down. Seconds after the gate shut down, they saw it dial again as the remaining Genii fled to another world.

The two teammates ran to the downed dart. It was badly damaged, but enough intact that they thought that perhaps they could still free those trapped inside the buffer. All they could hope for was that this was the dart that had taken Sheppard and McKay.

Atlantis:

Dr. Elizabeth Weir was worried. Granted she always worried when this team was offworld, but when Teyla had called in to request back-up her worry had grown substantially. She knew that she shouldn't have favorites, but a certain dark-haired flyboy had taken a hold of her heart and wouldn't let go. Not that she'd admit it to anyone of course, because she had a firm policy of not getting romantically involved with those under her.

Teyla had radioed in to request back-up and the assistance of Dr. Zelenka. She had proceeded to inform Elizabeth of the trouble that had befallen the team while on this planet. Elizabeth had immediately summoned Lorne's team and another unit of marine's the escort Dr. Zelenka to the planet to assist Teyla and Ronon. Hopefully the buffer on the dart did indeed hold Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay. However, if that was the case, Kolya was also in there as well.

Kolya. That was another thing causing her to worry. How was this man alive? According to the team, he had been killed during their last encounter with Lucius and given over to the genii. Maybe a little chat with Ladon is in order she thought to herself. Right now, however, she would wait to hear from the team offworld, in hopes that she might hear the story for herself from the long time foe, Kolya.

Atlantis: Later On

It was past midnight as Elizabeth sat at her desk with a cup of coffee reading the mission report from MX9-532. Unfortunately, Ronon had not shot down the correct dart. They had freed the people from the buffer only to find it full of villagers; they of course had been extremely grateful and had returned to the village. The village leaders had proposed trade relations and a team was currently attending a feast there to seal the deal. Kolya's lair had been searched by Lorne and his marines, but the search had been fruitless. All of the remaining genii had fled as soon as the wraith left leaving little to be learned.

Both Ronon and Teyla had returned to Atlantis with Lorne, Zelenka, and the marines. They had debriefed, but no solutions had presented themselves there, and Dr. Keller had hauled them off to the infirmary for their post mission exams. Nobody was happy. Ronon was obviously extremely upset and had been last seen in the gym beating the crap out of one of the punching bags. Teyla had gone off to meditate, while Lorne was working with Zelenka to find their missing CO and boss. Zelenka was attempting to locate them using the new trackers that had been assigned to all offworld team members, but the systems were new and hard to pinpoint the location of the trackers just yet. Lorne was going over wraith hotspots and trying to figure out where recent hive activity had been. The worst news that they had received was that the Daedalus had been recalled to Earth and wouldn't be there for a while. In fact a new ship, the Apollo was supposed to be their before it.

All Elizabeth could do right now, was hope the Sheppard would find a way to bring himself and McKay back home. Atlantis couldn't afford to loose them now. Deep down, she knew she couldn't loose him either.

TBC, The rest will be up tomorrow!


	2. Chapter 2

You Mean My Day Just Got Worse?

Part Two:_ I don't know if I quite captured Kolya, but you can't blame a girl for trying! Well, I had this done, but then I got a better idea that ended up making it a lot longer (sorry for the delay!) So, I broke it up again. I really want more time to rewrite the ending so here is the middle part and the last part will be up tomorrow scout's honor!_

Wraith Hive:

Kolya was slowly coming to. He had not had the rare pleasure of being held captive on a hive ship before. Yes, he had fought the wraith for years, but this was a new experience for him. Cowen had told him enough about the hive ships to recognize where he was currently. He pushed himself up to take a better hold of his surroundings. There were only two other occupants of the cell: Dr. McKay who was also waking up, and Colonel Sheppard, who still looked completely out of it. Out of it enough that he would easily succumb to death by his hands.

Kolya half entertained that thought when McKay spoke up, "Don't even think about trying to kill either of us." His voice wavered a little, but strengthened as he continued, "If you even want to attempt to escape, you're gonna need both of us."

"Really Dr. McKay, do you think I am that stupid?" retorted Kolya. Yep those stunners left a dozy of a headache behind.

Just then Sheppard started to stir. He opened his eyes to take in his surroundings, and Kolya commented, "Oh good now we all are awake."

The pilot pushed himself to a sitting position and looked around at the cell, "You know, it's almost like a home away from home. Maybe they should start charging rent for amount of times I find myself in one of these cells."

McKay rolled his eyes and responded, "You know, I think that's a habit you really need to break."

"At least it's not a cocoon," replied the Colonel smugly.

"Oh hardy har har colonel," replied McKay sarcastically, "You're the one with the honor of being on one of these ships the most. AND At least I don't have to worry about those hive queens. What is it with you and women? Ascended women, alien women, even wraith queens seem to have a thing for you."

Sheppard rolled his eyes and snapped back, "Ah, but I don't drool over wraith do I? That honor goes to you!"

As much as Kolya did not want to admit it, he found himself following the conversation of his two cellmates. Granted he wanted nothing more than to inflict pain on both of them, but he couldn't help see the strange relationship that was between them. He had known that they were friends, but by their banter he could see that they played on a whole other level than most. It was strange that a man as annoying and smart as Dr. McKay could have such close ties to a smartass military man that caused him so much grief.

However, he would have to restrain himself from trying to kill them just yet, because their banter revealed that both had been in this situation several times before, and he had to admit that McKay was right in that he needed both of them to escape. He'd bide his time, and once they were out, finish what he and Sheppard had started.

Kolya's musings were interrupted by the man himself as Sheppard asked him, "So in order to get out of here we are going to have to work together, as much as I hate to say this," Sheppard paused but a significant look from Rodney made him continue, "Temporary truce 'kay?"

Kolya sized him up to see if he was being honest, however the one thing that he had noticed in his dealings with Sheppard, was that he was very true to his word, "Alright, I will not try to kill either of you until we are off this hive." At McKay's audible sigh, he had to chuckle a little.

Sheppard was still watching him carefully, "So if we are gonna get outta here we are going to need a plan. Any ideas?"

Kolya could see McKay processing ideas faster than he could come up with any himself, so he decided to fish for a little info himself, "I will admit this is my first time on a hive, so unfortunately, I don't know too much about them."

"Really?" asked McKay amazed, "You, Mr. I Am Such A Villain, has yet to be on a hive ship? Huh." McKay appeared to be deep in thought but then suddenly it all seemed to click and he turned back to Sheppard and said, "Well I say we combine what you did the time Ford dragged you guys on that half-assed mission of his and my escaping skills."

Kolya watched as Sheppard considered this even though he had no idea what they were talking about. Sheppard replied, "Well yeah, our only problem lies in getting sharp pointy objects, and acquiring weapons once we get out."

Both men continued to ponder that point. Finally he couldn't take it anymore, "Would either of you like to explain this plan. I'd like to know if it's worth my time to trust you two."

McKay was about to answer him, when Sheppard cut him off, "Okay, we'll fill you in, but first I want to know one thing."

Kolya could see where this was going, but was at a lost for how to avoid it, "You want to know how I am alive is that it?"

"Yep," replied the colonel smugly watching him like a hawk all the while.

Kolya sighed then said, "Fine. I have always had contacts on numerous planets that have been indebted to me. Well, when a few of them learned that I had died and my body was being kept by Ladon, they were not too happy about it. So they staged a plot with my remaining men to recover my body and their brother soldiers who were being imprisoned by Ladon."

"Yeah go figure," commented McKay sarcastically.

Kolya gave McKay a pointed stare, before proceeding with his tale, "The operation was successful. Ladon did not know of anything until it was too late. The ancients were an intelligent race, by combining some of their technology and some drugs made from wraith enzymes, I was given my life back. The wraith drugs also took years off of my life, strengthening my body. Not unlike your little gift from your wraith friend, huh Colonel?"

McKay and Sheppard were still letting Kolya's tale soak in when a wraith and two guards approached their cell. The male wraith appeared to look all of them over before motioning his two lackeys to escort Sheppard out of the cell. The protests of McKay did nothing to engage them in conversation, let alone deter their movement. The colonel gave McKay a reassuring nod before accompanying them out of the cell.

Rodney sat back down once they disappeared from sight and said worriedly, "This is not good, not good at all!"

Kolya was a little peeved the Sheppard had been taken as he really wanted to be the one to kill him but felt compelled to ask, "Why?"

McKay looked ready to start hyperventilating, "Why? WHY? Because if we want to get off this hive we need him! He is the only one who can fly a dart to get us out of this mess, that's why! Without him we are screwed! Screwed I tell you!!"

"Oh," replied Kolya coolly, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned up against the cell wall. "I suppose that is the plan. Escape from the cell, steal a dart, and have Sheppard fly us out of here. That's it?"

Rodney gulped and took a steadying breath, "Yep. Well the getting out of the cell is always a little tricky. There are a couple ways to do it based on my experience." Then Rodney proceeded to fill Kolya in on their history with hive ships.

Another Part of the Wraith Hive:

Sheppard was led along a corridor to one of the main chambers of the hive. It was not long before the hostess joined him. Man did he hate hive queens. This one was no different, and she was supremely interested in him for some reason.

"You are different than other humans," she said sweetly, deadly sweet of course.

"Really, that's what all the ladies say," drawled Sheppard cockily.

The wraith queen continued to pace in a circle around him, "You have almost a faint wraith quality about you." She stopped, "Why?" Then resumed her circling.

_Wraith quality? Huh?_ She somehow must have sensed that the wraith had given him his life back. Another fun flashback. First Kolya and now this, the day was getting better and better. He replied to her, "Wraith quality really? I certainly think I'd know. But hey what can I say?"

She stopped her pacing and seemed to concentrate fully on Sheppard. The wraith queen was attempting to find the answers she wanted in his mind. Well, he wasn't going to give that up without a fight. As the seconds ticked by, the strain was starting to take its toll as the colonel was forced to his knees. Then a huge jolt rocked the ship ending the queen's mental onslaught.

John breathed a small sigh of relief because he would not have been able to keep her out of his mind of much longer. The wraith queen was pretty pissed about something and out of rage hit the colonel sending him flying backwards colliding with decorative column that supported the chamber. His head collided with the column sending him into oblivion.

"Take him back to the others, I must deal with this new threat," she hissed to her guards that had come forward to serve her.

Wraith Cell:

Rodney was pacing the cell out of worry for his friend when a jolt rocked through the ship knocking his legs out from under him.

From the opposite corner Kolya asked, "Is it your ship the Daedalus?"

McKay pushed himself up to a standing position and replied, "I am not even going to ask how you know about that. Not it can't be, it's," Rodney stopped not wanted to mention Earth, "Away currently, plus it would have extracted us now if it was."

"Really, extracted?" Kolya asked intrigued. This kind of technology would sell for a great deal, not to mention being supremely useful itself.

McKay looked over at him, head shaking, "No way, don't even think about it. There is no way you could take the Daedalus. No… I think odds are this is a rival hive. But the distraction might prove to our advantage."

Just then they heard sounds in the hall. The two drones were dragging Sheppard back to the cell. They opened the door and threw him mercilessly onto the floor before exiting and going back down the hall from which they came.

Rodney immediately rushed over and knelt by his friend, "Sheppard? Are you okay?" McKay was starting to worry over the pilot's lack of response, but his investigations were cut short as movement in the hall captured his attention. He witnessed a group of wraith making there way down the corridor, only to have a canister of some kind thrown at their feet. Within seconds all of the wraith were on the ground, apparently out cold. Unfortunately the gas in the canister seemed to work on humans as well, because half a minute later Rodney knew no more.

Dark Cell:

It was hard to ignore the throbbing pain that he felt in his head. Actually, it was what helped to bring him out of the blissful release of unconsciousness. However when he tried to reach up and touch his aching head, John found that he was unable to do so. In fact he soon became aware that his hands were tied behind his back. That was not the only thing though; he was sitting in a chair back to back with another person.

John tried to twist around as much as possible to see who was sitting behind him. He caught a glimpse of the Atlantis expedition logo on the sleeve of the man behind him, and breathed a sigh of relief, because that had to belong to McKay. Rodney was still completely out of it, whatever _it_ was, as his breathing was slow and regular, plus he didn't respond to John when he called his name. So since there wasn't much else to do, he decided to get a better feel for his surroundings.

They obviously were not in the hive any more. That much was evident given the design and architecture of the place. They were seated in the middle of a medium sized stone chamber that was lined with bookcases. These were filled with books of course, adding to the library feel of the place. There also were several tables with different science equipment set up on them, changing John's initial thoughts of the room as a library to that of a lab. The room was pretty dark because there weren't any windows that the pilot could see, and the door to the chamber was located directly to his left. He assumed the other half of the chamber was filled with similar pursuits, but couldn't get a good view of them.

John had just finished his examination of the chamber when Rodney started to moan a little and move around. This was a good sign because then he could hopefully get some answers as to how they ended up where they were. Because the last thing that he remembered was having that nasty wraith queen throw him across the room, and waking up in this lab place didn't quite make a lot of sense.

Rodney moaned again, "Uhh my head. That must have been some strong stuff."

"What stuff?" John inquired curiously. Apparently Rodney had been knocked out with something.

"Sheppard?" asked McKay, his voice with a hint of the concern he was trying to conceal.

"Duh," replied the colonel rolling his eyes, even though there was no way the scientist would be able to see it. "Mind filling me in on what I missed?"

McKay switched into scientist mode as he rattled off the facts of the last things he remembered, "Yeah two wraith lackeys threw you back into the cell, literally, and as I was trying to get you to wake up a canister was thrown at a group of wraith down the hall. It was filled with some kind of gas because it made its way down to the cell after quickly dispatching the wraith. The next thing I knew was that I was waking up here with a nasty headache."

One thing was still nagging at the back of John's mind and he voiced his thoughts to Rodney, "So what do you think happened to Kolya?"

Rodney took a second to ponder that one before replying, "That is a good question. Let's just hope that he's enemies with whoever our captives are now, whoever they are."

"Yeah, it'll be twice as hard to get out of here if we are up against the combined forces of two people who hate us," added John.

"I blame you for that, Mr. I Can't Play Nice with Anyone," replied McKay sarcastically.

"Hey, it's not always MY fault!" retorted Sheppard.

However all conversation was forestalled as the sound of the door being unlocked grabbed their attention. The door swung inward to reveal their latest captor, Michael.

Atlantis:

It had been a day since Teyla and Ronon had come back to the city missing the other half of their team. In that day, the presence of the military commander and head of the science department had been sorely missed by the inhabitant's of the city. This had happened in the past, but spirits were at an all time low as there was no evidence as to where they could be now.

Down in the labs, Zelenka had spent the entire night scanning the galaxy for the trackers that had been imbedded into all offworld team members. However the system had not quite been refined and he was having trouble with it. The signals were just too weak to pick out right now. He had fallen asleep while the search was still running and was woken up to his laptop beeping at him. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as a focused in on what his computer was trying to tell him.

Seconds later he scrambled to find his comm. and called an emergence briefing with Dr. Weir and Major Lorne. What he had found out was definitely a step in the right direction. 

Creepy Lab:

Lt. Colonel John Sheppard could barely contain a sigh. He seriously was contemplating what he must have done to offend the gods above to have allowed this day to happen. Really, Murphy's Law was just starting to get plain annoying. Perhaps he should have stayed in bed that morning. First he had had to endure the boring mission with McKay playing the 'touch this' game, then Kolya and his genii buddies had shown up, next the wraith crashed the party, and finally Michael was thrown into the mix. Was someone out to get him? Well they weren't going to win, that was for sure. He would not go out without a fight, that was a given.

So he decided to break the silence first, "So how've you been Michael? How're the kids?" Of course by kids he completely meant Michael's creepy bug minions that were in the severe need of an exterminator.

"Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay welcome to my latest lair. Imagine my surprise when I planned to take over a hive and use the ship to ferry my army and the humans stored inside to increase its numbers, to find in a cell out of the way, the two of you," replied the half wraith coolly.

"Us, why would you want to see the two of us?" asked McKay sarcastically, although John could hear the fear that Rodney was trying to contain.

"What happened to Kolya?" asked John trying to move the conversation along.

Michael seemed to smile, "Yes, your friend Kolya had quite the story to tell. It seems you two have had an _interesting_ relationship. He was able to offer me something that I needed, human test subjects, and I was able to offer him freedom."

"Oh so you two are all buddy-buddy now aren't you?" asked the colonel not liking where this conversation was heading.

However it was McKay who asked the most important question of them all, "So, uh, where does that leave us and all?"

This time both were sure that Michael smiled, "Neither of you will live to see the sunset."

With that he started to leave the room, but not before the colonel called out, "So care to elaborate on that?" Of course that earned him only silence from Michael as he left them to contemplate what he said.

"Huh, who woulda thunk? Michael and Kolya working together," said Rodney sagely.

John shrugged and replied, "Screams good things don't it?"

With that the two fell into an uneasy silence as they tried to figure a way out of the mess they currently found themselves in and wondered where it had all gone wrong.

Atlantis Briefing Room:

At the word from an excited Zelenka, Dr. Weir, Major Lorne, Teyla and Ronon now met with the scientist. He quickly explained what he had found.

"Now the new trackers have hardly been put to the test, and I was unable to get a lock on them as a result. I think that since they were on a hive ship and therefore moving around, the program was not written to keep up well enough."

At this point Ronon cut in, "Doc, is there a point to this?"

Something seemed to have clicked for Elizabeth, "And since you have a lock that means the hive ship has stopped moving or they are no longer aboard the hive."

"But if they managed to escape the hive, why haven't they dialed in yet?" asked the Major.

This earned silence from the group; however it was Teyla that spoke up, "Could it not be that they are unable to as they are still being held captive?"

"All we know is the location of the planet that they are on, or nearby. The signals have stopped moving. That is all I can tell you," replied Radek solemnly.

Lorne straightened in his seat and said, "Well that sound's good enough to me. I say we take some jumpers full of marines to the planet and use the jumper's sensors to further locate them so that we can extract them."

Elizabeth was still unsure about this since there were so many unknowns, but she knew that they really couldn't afford to wait around too long, "Alright, Major take whoever you need and be ready to leave in an hour."

As they stood up to leave the briefing room Lorne turned to Teyla and Ronon and said, "I take it you guys are going to want to come along?"

_--Ahh the dreaded TBC, I'm sorry I did mean for this to be done, but I had the idea to just make it worse and throw Michael in there adding to the plot considerably. The old ending didn't work, so I have to redo it. The Final Chapter will be out tomorrow I promise!—lemons-- _


	3. Chapter 3

You Mean My Day Just Got Worse?

Part Three! The End I Promised!!!!

Michael's Lair:

"So who do you think you've pissed off more, Michael or Kolya," came Rodney's voice from behind the colonel.

Yep, that was the million dollar question. Both probably wanted to be the one to kill him, which was probably why nothing had happened yet. Instead he replied sarcastically, "I don't know, who do You think you've pissed off more?"

Rodney was really starting to loose faith in this whole thing. "As far as I can see we are still stuck tied to each other and a couple of chairs awaiting our death sentence by two of the most evil beings in this galaxy. Well you'll probably die first. My genius will probably be exploited and then I'll die."

"McKay, must you be so negative?" asked the colonel.

"Well seeing as how screwed we are I'd say yes," started Rodney. He was working up to a rant now, "And another thing…."

Well his next thing was cut off by an impatient "Shut up" from Sheppard.

"Shut up. SHUT UP? This is how my friend treats me in the last hours of my life?" ranted Rodney.

"Rodney just be quiet for two seconds, I think I have an idea," said the pilot calmly, "Remember the team movie night two times ago?"

"Oh yeah the one were you talked Ronon into making his choice Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Why?" questioned the astrophysicist.

Sheppard sighed. For one so smart, McKay could be pretty dumb some times, "You see the table to your right? There is a burner on low. I say we scoot our chairs over to it and burn off the bindings on our hands so we can get out of here."

"Oh," replied Rodney. "But if we light the place on fire like Sean Connery did I am gonna blame you for it! Cause I don't see a fireplace in here."

John chuckled and replied, "At least we die on our own terms, so start scooting."

"Oh that's real comforting Colonel!" snarked Rodney, "Once we get outta this mess I am never going off world with you again. It's lab research for me here on out!"

"Just scoot!"

Five long minutes later they reached the lab table. After some creative maneuvering, in which McKay swore he pulled his arm out of his socket; they managed to get their hands from behind their backs so that they were stretched between them close enough to the flame to allow the rope to burn.

"Uh I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I don't think this is working," said McKay several minutes later.

However Rodney was wrong, one of the few times he actually was, because as soon as he said this the rope came free.

"Oww it's hot, my hand is burnt!" complained McKay.

"Hey, but at least your hands are free," replied Sheppard, "Come on and untie yourself."

They spent the next few minutes fumbling with the ropes that bound them together around the middle, and the ones that tied their ankles to the chair legs. But finally they were free.

"Ok Indiana Jones, what's our next move?" asked McKay mockingly.

Sheppard raised and eyebrow and that wiped the smirk of the scientist's face. "Yeah, it's your turn."

"Gee thanks Colonel!" replied Rodney bitterly. "Well assuming we can even get out of this room, we have no idea where anything is in this place!"

Suddenly a brilliant thought came to John, "True but look around? The walls are lined with books. One of them is bound to have schematics to this place right? I mean this place has obviously been around a lot longer than Michael has."

"Huh, not bad!" admitted Rodney grudgingly.

"Yeah well I try, okay I'll start over here," replied the colonel.

"Right!" said McKay as he started to examine the shelves nearest to him.

Atlantis:

An hour later Lorne had assembled the people he needed to execute this op. A surprising number of people volunteered, even those off duty. Everyone had come to respect their CO and would willingly do anything to get him back. Three jumpers had been set up. Two would have two teams of marines each, and the last one would have his team, Zelenka, Ronon, and Teyla. They would be the ones spearheading the operation.

As the jumpers exited the gate, they immediately went into stealth mode. It was a bit unnecessary as the gate was in orbit around the planet and nobody would have seen them exit, but one could never be too careful.

Using the jumper's sensors they quickly determined the location of both Sheppard and McKay. The dots were located in a complex of some kind, and did not appear to be moving. It only took five minutes for the jumpers to get to the structure. It was an old stone complex that was almost completely covered in plant overgrowth. However standing out considerably were two hive ships that had been parked right next to the complex. The ships had completely crushed the trees that had once been there. Fortunately one of the ships must have been landed a few times because it had created a larger hole in the forest than the other, giving the jumpers just enough room to land undetected close to the complex.

The sensors indicated a few life signs on the hive farthest away from them, but they were not human or wraith. However there were many more of these inside the complex. Also inside however, there were only three human life signs. Two of which were those of Sheppard and McKay. They determined that the third had to be Kolya. His life sign was in a different part of the complex. There also was only one wraith life sign in the whole complex. This greatly disturbed the group because it was the wraith who had taken their friends in the first place. Teyla confirmed the solitary wraith life sign, and was just as puzzled as the rest until they saw one of the unidentified signs exit the nearest wraith hive.

It was one of the bug creatures they had seen Michael create. This was bad, very bad! Now they somehow had to work a plan to get their guys out.

Cell of Funness

"What've you found?"

"Umm a boring diary, directions for a good sounding pie of some kind, local myths, and a collection here on the voodoo medicine of this planet," replied Rodney bitterly. This was not working out well and any second Michael could show up and ruin all their hard work.

Sheppard walked over carrying a book, "Well I think I have been a little more successful." He opened up the book to display a map of the complex, not to mention the history of the place.

Both men bent over to study it when they heard the sound of the door being unlocked. Sheppard quickly scanned the tables and picked up a heavy metal bowl, the best weapon that the room offered and took up position by the door. McKay grabbed the book and backed into the corner.

Michael opened the door bearing a tray of needles. Unfortunate for him, as he turned to shut it, Sheppard struck hitting him in the head with the bowl. Fortunate for the Atlanteans, a couple blows to the head later, Michael was down for the count.

McKay grabbed the book before he cautiously followed Sheppard out into the hall. They were going to need quite a bit of luck if they were going to make it out of the complex without running into anyone, because they were smack dab in the middle of all of the entrances.

They moved down the hall as stealthily as possible, trying to make very little noise. A left, a right, another right, and another left later they found themselves closer to achieving their goal. All that stood between them and freedom was a large chamber. They had had a couple close calls while sneaking through the halls; those bug soldiers could creep along quite with a great deal of stealth. However according to the map this was a fairly large chamber, a welcoming hall of sorts, and they would be spotted for sure if someone was inside.

The colonel opened the door a fraction to determine if someone was inside. The coast looked clear so he opened the door a little more to allow them to creep inside. The room was shrouded in darkness and he need not have bothered to be so stealthy because nobody would have seen them enter anyway.

The chamber was large and had a ceiling that went up to the next floor. There was one skylight that allowed to setting sunlight to stream into the room. There were a few chandeliers that helped to partially light the room, but there were plenty of shadows lining the wall for them to keep to and remain unnoticed.

In the middle of the room the floor was sunken in and a mat had been placed on the floor. There were also a couple racks that housed a variety of fighting poles and sticks allowing them to determine that the room was being used as a training center of sorts.

"Talk about a creepy gym," commented McKay under his breath.

The two team mates cautiously made their way to the door keeping as much to the shadows as possible. However they were half way to their destination when a voice called out from the opposite shadows, "Running away without a fight Colonel."

Sheppard whipped around to see Kolya set out from the shadows into the light streaming in from the sunset, and replied, "I prefer to call it a strategic escape, although if you wanted to chat, you could've just asked."

Kolya picked up two Bantos rods that were lying in the rack nearest to him, "I am done talking with you. Let's end this."

The pilot grabbed two of rods of his own and stepped onto the mat to face his arch foe, "You first," he said with his usual sarcasm.

Rodney could not help watching the events unfold without being terrified. The opening blows were strong. Both men were pretty much set against each other. All of the tension between the two from the past seemed to have been leading up to this moment as they battled to gain the upper hand. First it seemed like Sheppard was winning, but Kolya only appeared to be testing him out. Rodney was mesmerized by the sheer amount of technique the genii commander had. He was almost playing with the colonel. Granted Sheppard was good after a little under three years of training with Teyla, be even she still kicked his ass on a regular basis. The one thing that the pilot did have on his side was strength, Kolya was weaker than he appeared to be and Rodney noticed that his blows were getting weaker. One thing McKay also noticed was the strangely familiar sound of an explosion occurring in another part of the complex. He could only hope that it was their guys finally showing up in a rescue attempt.

His attention was brought back to the situation at had as Kolya managed to knock one of Sheppard's sticks from his hand, but the quick thinking colonel dove to avoid a blow and grabbed another off one of the racks as he turned away. Then the two were at it again. All of a sudden Rodney was puzzled by their unspoken consent to stop, however the two fighters began to circle each other.

"I must admit," said Kolya panting, "You know how to do more than shoot a gun well."

Sheppard, who was also breathing heavily, but not as much as his foe, replied cheekily, "For an old guy, you're not so bad yourself."

A blink of an eye later the two were at it again. This time around they were able to land some glancing blows on each other, Rodney winced as Sheppard was struck on the thigh, _that is going to leave one nasty bruise_, he thought to himself. The colonel struck back though landing a heavy blow to Kolya's upper right arm. However, the fight was disturbed a second later as an explosion shook the room leaving a gaping hole in one of the walls.

The force of the explosion threw all three of the room's occupants to the ground. Rodney was still trying to get his bearings and see through the dust filled room when he heard a voice shouting orders to go in that sounded a lot like Major Lorne. He could just see the shadow of Ronon barreling his way through the still slightly burning hole in the wall. The cavalry had finally arrived and they seemed to be making a rather large bang just to get to them.

McKay struggled to get up, something was wrong with his leg because it wouldn't quite support his weight, and was soon assisted by Sheppard who had appeared by his side. Unfortunately Rodney spotted movement out of the corner of his eye a second too late. Kolya had drawn a nasty looking knife out of somewhere and had hurled it at Sheppard before turning and fleeing the room as fast as he could.

The impact of the weapon forced both of them to sink back to the ground. Rodney ended up on the bottom somewhat cushioning the colonel's fall. Still dazed McKay could see the large knife sticking out of his friend's side. With the thought of that not looking too good he saw Ronon arrive at the scene with Teyla and Major Lorne right behind him. He finally felt like they were in good hands and allowed himself to succumb to the darkness caused by the pain in his leg.

Atlantis: Infirmary

Slowly Rodney came back to the world around him. He could hear the beeping of monitors and quickly determined that he was in the infirmary. After the two days he had had, he was actually thankful to be there at the moment, granted he knew that it would get old pretty quick, for now he was relieved. He looked down to see that his leg had been put in a cast, great limited mobility, and the little cuts he had sustained all had nice bandages on them. The Band-Aids of course were actually pretty nice, someone had chosen Batman ones.

His relief was cut short pretty quick as he went over the last things he remembered. Sheppard had been in a bad way then, but how was he now?

"McKay," grunted Ronon as he looked up from the chair he was sitting in at the edge of the scientist's bed.

"Sheppard?" he asked hesitantly of the former runner.

Teyla walked over from behind the curtain and replied, "He is still in surgery, but we do not know much more."

Rodney swallowed before asking, "How long have we been back?"

"Four hours," replied Ronon succinctly.

Just then Elizabeth walked in followed by Major Lorne. "McKay, you're awake," came the major's semi cheerful observation.

"Rodney," Elizabeth addressed him, "Are you doing alright?"

McKay nodded and replied, "Yeah, you need to know what happened don't you?"

Lorne replied gently, "Well that would be really helpful for starters."

Just as Rodney finished filling them in on what had happened on the hive and then with Michael, Dr. Keller arrived on the scene in a set of rather bloody scrubs.

"Well," she began breathlessly, "I was able to remove the knife without causing a great deal more damage. Unfortunately the knife had been smeared with slow acting poison that we did not detect until part way through when his systems started to shut down. However we were able to counteract it and complete the procedure. The knife slid right in between the ribs, puncturing a lung, but that was repaired. He's still going to be out for a while, but should make a normal recovery." The strain of being the acting CMO was definitely something Keller seemed to still be getting used to.

Everyone was visibly relieved to hear that Sheppard was going to be okay and a watch was quickly established to stay with him until he came to.

Atlantis: Later on in the Infirmary

John slowly became aware of the beeping of the monitor's next to him, but the most familiar and annoying sound was that of someone typing furiously away on a laptop. He forced himself to open his eyes and turned his head toward the pecking. McKay was sitting up in the bed to his left working away at his laptop while his casted leg rested a top of a pile of pillows.

He tried to sit up only to hiss in pain as he jostled his side. McKay's voice drifted over from next to him, "I wouldn't move around if I were you."

"Really McKay, I hadn't noticed," replied John through his teeth.

Just then another voice joined the conversation, "Rodney you could be a little more helpful." Elizabeth was sitting in a chair at the foot of John's bed sporting a laptop of her own, but had stopped reading it to pay attention to him instead. "It was my turn to play the infirmary waiting game," she smiled, "Ronon went off to the gym to work out some frustration," she said delicately, "and Teyla is due in another thirty minutes."

"Oh, thanks," he replied quietly, and then asked, "So what happened?"

Elizabeth took a sip from the cup of coffee she had and answered, "Well Zelenka found your transmitters and gave the location to Major Lorne who took three jumpers full of marines, Ronon, and Teyla to extract the two of you. After a great deal of C-4 later they finally found you seconds too late it seems to prevent all of this damage from happening, and got you back here as soon as possible."

"And Kolya?" he asked looking past her.

She replied sadly, "He disappeared as did Michael."

Seconds later they were joined by Ronon, Teyla, and Lorne who all wanted to see how the Colonel was doing.

Conclusion:

About a week and a half later Sheppard was released to his quarters, but still had a couple of weeks to go until he was put back on light duty. However he couldn't stay cooped up I his quarters and sough solace on his favorite place in the entire city, the East Pier.

As he leaned up against the railing he fingered the knife that Kolya had thrown at him. Ronon had been kind enough to clean all traces of poison from the blade and returned it to him. Unfortunately his thoughts were bothered by the fact that Kolya was out there. After the last incident with Lucius he thought the man was gone for good, and now he would have to go back to watching over his shoulder when on missions for the crafty genii commander to show up.

Well he would just have to be on the lookout, Kolya would not get the better of him. Next time, well next time hopefully it would end. But for right now he wasn't going to dwell on it. There were other things to focus on, but he'd be ready for him whenever they met again.

--fin—

_Ha I finished it! Wow this is kind of a cool feeling. Normally I do wip's and this is kinda nice. Yep hopefully you enjoyed it. Reviews are always appreciated, but I am not going to beg for them. I know this is kind of, well really a lot more serious than I like to normally write, but hey it works, I think! Thanks for reading,_

_--Lemons--_


End file.
